Jupiter

Our dedicated volunteers have put in over 4700 hours of work on Gazela and Jupiter this year, keeping their maritime history alive and sharing their stories with thousands of visitors.

In June 2016, Gazela sailed down the coast to Sail Baltimore and Norfolk’s Harbor Fest, reaching 1,500 guests over the three week trip.

Back in our Philadelphia home port our boats have welcomed visitors ranging from families at Pennsylvania Coast Day to high school classes from Camden.

The National Park Service and Maritime Administration made a contribution towards preserving Jupiter‘s legacy through a National Maritime Grant. This matching grant will support dry-docking the 114-year-old tug and move her towards meeting the necessary safety requirements to make her history more accessible.

But volunteer labor and project grants can’t do it alone. We need your help to keep these boats afloat. Over the next year, the Guild has an ambitious plan to increase our educational outreach through new partnerships, embark on regular training sails to foster seamanship skills among our volunteer crew, and plan events to raise awareness of these unique vessels throughout the Philadelphia community and engage more people in preserving their legacy. You can help us preserve this heritage and bring that passion to others. Your Giving Tuesday support makes this possible!

Click on the link below to support PSPG with a tax-deductible donation!

Gazela is back in Philadelphia, her home port, after a three week sail in the Chesapeake Bay. She is docked at Penn’s Landing in front of the Summerfest roller rink. Visitors are welcome to stop by and see her, and Tug Jupiter, too, this summer!

Bring a dish. Bring a bottle. Bring a friend and turn them on to the ship. Please email volunteer@gazela.org and let us know if you can help by bringing a big pot of something to eat or help with set-up or clean-up.

I have been holding off on this Newsletter so I could announce the Dry-docking date. It is now officially in the signed contract for ‘on or about’ July 21. The uncertainty of the date and my hesitancy to announce it was due to a crane-barge that was in the dock that has just been un-docked (on Wednesday). The dock needs to be pumped down and cleaned (in progress) and then we can start building the blocking next week. As Lisa mentioned in the Weekly News there will be meeting this Saturday for volunteers. If you are interested in helping, especially during the week, please be sure to attend. The docking is scheduled for 4 weeks so we should be out on Aug 18. Don’t assume you won’t be needed or that if you can only spare a few days that won’t work for us. We need you!

There will also be a briefing given by the shipyard (Rhoads Industries) (date to be announced) for those working in the dock. As you can imagine there are lots of safety rules.

We are also looking at the possibility of a fund raiser near the end of the docking period so stay tuned for that as well.

As previously mentioned the intent of this docking is to repair a known leak, fix any damaged copper and pull a strake of planking below the waterline to assess the condition of the frames. Zinc replacement and hull fitting inspections will be done as well. This hull assessment is a key element to help us gauge the extent of future work.

Poplar will also be docked at the same time. She is in need of some plating repairs and painting. There are opportunities for volunteers here also.

Tall Ships Festival

Thanks for all the volunteers for the Tall Ships Philadelphia-Camden event. The ship looked great. I received several compliments including some from Tall Ships America staff. A special thanks goes out to Lisa Kolibabek, the Volunteer Coordinator, the GLAD Committee (Marie Jordan, Alice Krieg, Alex Stewart and Steve Schmid), the Persons-in-Charge and cooks under Debbie Greenspan’s guidance. Given the complex logistics of the festival and a rainy Saturday, we did a fantastic job accommodating over 9000 visitors. All enjoyed their visit. To support participate in the event we needed to renew our USCG Certificate of Inspection and, thanks to the preparation under our Superintendent of Ships, Patrick Flynn, we accomplished that goal as well. Well done to all involved in preparing the ships and serving as crew, including volunteers from Oliver Hazard Perry.

This past icy and cold winter was not kind to old ships, wooden or steel. This spring volunteers pitched in to make Gazela look like a dream and to get Jupiter looking and running her best. For the past three months, volunteers have been busy repairing trim, caulking seams, and sanding, priming and painting everything that doesn’t move.

There’s still a tremendous amount of work to do. We continue to welcome all volunteers to help us get ready to proudly present Gazela and Jupiter to all who come aboard this summer. Want to help? Send an e-mail to volunteer@philashipguild.org

A lot is going on these days getting ready for a forthcoming Gazela and Poplar dry-docking which is scheduled for April. We will be using a dry-dock at Rhoads, Inc. in Philadelphia. A few of us met with Rhoads in January and have had several calls with them since to discuss the scope of work. We have also engaged a ‘Project Manager’ to help us get ready. Patrick Flynn will be the ‘lead shipwright’ for the work. Other positions will be filled over the next several weeks. The date has slipped a couple of weeks from April 1 due to some emergent repairs to the road in the vicinity of the dry-dock. As soon as a contract is signed with the actual dates I will let you know. We anticipate about 4 weeks in the dock. Continued

As we get ready for the holidays there are a few things I would like to let you know about. First and most important, we have recently re-hired Patrick Flynn as the Superintendent of Ships. He will be working part time on Gazela while he works on A. J. Meerwald as well. With his hours per week being limited, Patrick will be working to support the efforts of you, our members. We need everyone’s help to get the important work done. Patrick has already made a difference and will certainly help the Marine Committee with all the winter preps and Dry-docking preps. The board made this decision and established a budget to make it happen, recognizing that the ships need some day to day care that was not happening without a paid employee. So welcome back Patrick, we missed you. The Guild will definitely benefit from this renewed relationship. Continued